In a world brimming with digital technology, technical jargon is constantly being thrown around, which could confuse and overwhelm even the savviest professionals. Among these terms is one phrase which keeps popping up as being immensely crucial to a company’s success—partner-to-partner (P2P) ecosystems. In fact, they create such value that IDC predicts that if marketplaces do not have a proactive, valued P2P ecosystem in place by 2022, they will fail. 

So What Is a P2P Ecosystem?

When companies rely on single solution providers (SSP) for all their IT needs, it becomes difficult for them to scale to client demand. Having to spend time and resources finding the right partner for your specific needs for each project has proved inefficient and a bottleneck for project completion. This is where P2P ecosystems come in.

A P2P ecosystem offers IT solution providers the ability to partner together on projects with defined and shared value. Instead of competing with each other, they can work together and play to their strengths by filling each others’ skill gaps, ultimately solving clients’ end-to-end journey in a more efficient way.

P2P Ecosystems vs. Having an SSP:

There are 3 key benefits to using a P2P ecosystem:

• Agility in Business 

For many organizations, the chief benefits of P2P ecosystems are saving time, and efficiency in operational expenditure. A P2P ecosystem is capable of responding more quickly to evolving customer demand. Partnership alliances were a huge focus for the IDC 2020 predictions. About the options for creating solutions in IT projects, IDC’s Vice President of Channels and Alliances Steve White said, “You either build it, buy it, or partner to make it happen.”

• Transparency and Trust

Another benefit of a P2P ecosystem is that your company is able to find a trusted partner that you can feel confident in collaborating with and that they’ll have important background context on you and your clients’ needs and capabilities, instead of having to start fresh with every new project. Having a trusted partner also ensures a more smooth collaboration process and guarantees that you are providing work of the highest quality, therefore increasing the strategic differentiation and value trade-offs you can offer your clients.

• Unlocking New Opportunities

A third benefit is by finding complementary companies that will help you grow your customer base, you can capture new revenue streams and opportunities for your business. You can remove barriers to your business development teams and cross-sell to new customers. Businesses can also upsell on existing sales. 

How Can I Build a P2P Ecosystem?

Joining a P2P ecosystem platform enables you to innovate and expand your business partnerships. A pioneer in the industry and one of the first of its kind, P2P Global supplies a collaboration marketplace that connects highly specialized, top-tier technological service providers, creating partnerships that can help your business and provide solutions for complex IT projects. Here’s how it works: 

• P2P Global’s technology-enabled platform allows members, as an opportunity creator, to post a project opportunity with specific requirements such as skills, certifications, location to you or the client, or experience. Then, P2P Global uses an algorithm to connect those companies with a curated list of solution-providers that match their project’s requirements.
• Members, as opportunity responders, have the ability to respond to curated projects matched to their companies and their specific skill set.
• P2P Global then streamlines the partnership agreement process once both parties have agreed to move forward.   

It’s a platform that simplifies the process that a lot of companies tend to get lost in. In the words of IDC’s VP of Channels and Alliances, Steve White, “P2P Global creates a like-minded group that’s all speaking the same language to work towards the same goal.” 

P2P Partnership within the P2P Global Platform

Karl Kleinert, CEO of Intellinet, a premier network management, cloud innovation and information technology provider and Josh Walsh, CEO of The Refinery, a marketing agency with a niche focus on managing large enterprise and ecommerce sites, have been attempting to do P2P collaboration ad hoc for years. 

Because partnering ad hoc can be one-off, opportunistic, and inefficient, they joined the P2P Global platform in 2019. Upon becoming members, The Refinery created an opportunity for which they had a skill gap hindering the completion of a client project. 

Case Western Reserve University, a private research university, approached The Refinery because they needed a new website and larger cloud structure for their business school department. As a research school, Case Western is a global organization, so the site also had to be optimized for international use and security compliance, as well as needing round-the-clock support in case something happened in a time zone on the opposite side of the world. The Refinery built and deployed the site, but didn’t have the skill set in house to provide 24-hour support. In order to fill this skill gap, they created an opportunity on P2P Global’s platform, which then curated a list of companies that matched their requirements. The Refinery chose Intellinet from the curated list because, after an initial conversation, they felt they were a good fit, and that their support desk, which is accessible 24/7, filled such a critical need. Without this partnership, The Refinery would have had to decline the project altogether.

Karl of Intellinet, and Josh of The Refinery have partnered to complete several projects since. One of the benefits Karl and Josh enjoy most about being part of a structured P2P ecosystem platform is that the process of finding and vetting trusted partners is streamlined.

“With talent gaps, we hope to find a partner that does great work. To find a partner, the process is basically luck + networking + research, which can be really inefficient. Being a part of a P2P ecosystem short circuits the process in a big way.” – Josh Walsh, CEO, The Refinery

P2P ecosystems may seem futuristic, but they are in play now. The biggest challenge for many will be execution – optimizing the current business model while integrating a new one. 

However, as we’ve seen, the benefits of structured P2P collaboration far outweigh the challenges of adoption. If accomplished, it will allow your business to find – and grow in – new markets it would not otherwise have reached. 

Ready to join a P2P ecosystem and transform your business? Find out more and join the P2P Global community at P2Pglobal.info